Julie Mehretu & Jessica Rankin

American contemporary visual artist, Julie Mehretu, is known for her multi-layered abstract paintings. Most of her drawings, prints, and paintings depict the cumulative effects of urban sociopolitical changes. Her canvasses integrate elements of linear illustrations as well as technical drawings of buildings. She got her Master in Fine Arts degree from Rhode Island School of Design in 1997.

Mehretu met her wife, Jessica Rankin, at a bar in 2000, and the two eventually got married in 2008. Both have  an interest in art. The latter is an Australian artist who lives and works in New York and has participated in numerous exhibitions in Europe, Australia, and the United States. Her work features a series of signs, symbols, and metal maps with codes that explore ideas of intuition, memory, and interpretation. At some point in their relationship, the couple went their own ways, but they have remained amicable toward each other for their two sons—it’s great that a lawyer was not needed.